From left: 9-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and 6-year-old Bebe King. Photo / AFP
From left: 9-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and 6-year-old Bebe King. Photo / AFP
A teenager has pleaded guilty to the “unspeakable” killing of three young girls in a stabbing spree last year that sparked the UK’s most violent riots in a decade.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, admitted murdering the girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class inSouthport, northwest England.
The July stabbings sent shock waves across the UK, triggering unrest and riots in more than a dozen English and Northern Irish towns and cities, amid viral misinformation that an asylum seeker committed them.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed that “the vile and sick” killer would be convicted, while vowing to pursue “answers” over the case amid criticism that the full picture is yet to emerge.
“There are grave questions to answer as to how the state failed in its ultimate duty to protect these young girls,” he said in a statement.
“Britain will rightly demand answers. And we will leave no stone unturned in that pursuit.”
Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to killing three young girls in a stabbing spree last year that sparked the UK's most violent riots. Photo / AFP
Rudakubana, who was born in Wales, admitted a total of 16 charges, including the three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a blade.
He also admitted production of a biological toxin, ricin, as well as possessing an Al-Qaeda training manual.
The attack has not been treated as a terror incident and the teen was never charged with terrorism offences – prompting criticism from some.
That intensified this week as UK media reported Rudakubana had been referred to the British government’s anti-extremism scheme, Prevent, three times over concerns about his fixation with violence.
The scheme aims to “stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism” or help rehabilitate those already involved in terror, according to the Interior Ministry.
Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, were killed in the attack in the seaside resort near Liverpool on July 29, 2024.
“This was an unspeakable attack,” Ursula Doyle of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said outside court.
The start of the school holidays “should have been one of carefree innocence” but it “became a scene of the darkest horror as Axel Rudakubana carried out his meticulously planned rampage”, she said.
“It is clear that this was a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence.”
Wearing a grey tracksuit and a surgical mask, Rudakubana refused to stand in court and did not speak except to say the word “guilty” to the charges.
The unrest linked to his killings lasted nearly a week.
Rioters attacked police, shops and hotels housing asylum seekers as well as mosques, with hundreds arrested and charged.
Authorities blamed far-right agitators for fuelling the violence, including by sharing misinformation claiming the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
In fact, Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to parents of Rwandan origin, and lived in Banks, a village northeast of Southport.
Adjourning the case for sentencing later this week, the judge warned he faced a long custodial sentence.
Britain’s Press Association news agency reported that although neighbours described him and his family as unremarkable, teachers had had concerns about Rudakubana’s behaviour.
The teenager, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, was previously excluded from his school for an incident involving a hockey stick, the agency added.
Teachers at a specialist school he attended were also alarmed by his violence towards others, it said.
Despite being aged 17 at the time of the murders, child protection restrictions over reporting Rudakubana’s name were lifted in August because of concerns over the spread of misinformation and his imminent 18th birthday.
Leader of the hard-right Reform UK party Nigel Farage claimed disclosures about Rudakubana’s links to Prevent showed there had been a “cover-up”.
In the aftermath of the attack on the dance class, King Charles III and other senior royals travelled to Southport to meet survivors.
Taylor Swift, then in the middle of her Eras tour, wrote on Instagram at the time that she “was completely in shock”.
